Lily Dai

Raised in a musical household, where her father and brother were accomplished pianists, music always filled Lily’s home. Naturally, she gravitated towards the piano but expressed more interest in the cello over time. Under her father’s tutelage, she began her cello studies. At nine, she began her formal studies under Georg Pederson and later Susan Blake, both esteemed professors at the Sydney Conservatorium. During this time, she was a Scholarship recipient at the ‘Rising Stars Program’ at the Sydney Conservatorium. Over the course of those nine years at Rising Stars, she studied musicology, and music theory and performed almost weekly. At thirteen, she participated in the Tchaikovsky Youth Competition held in Novosibirsk, Russia. She completed her Licentiate in Music, Australian diploma in 2017 with distinction and shortly thereafter won the Barbara Robinson Prize at the Ku-ring-gai Concerto Competition. Lily concluded her secondary studies at the Presbyterian Ladies College Sydney as a recipient of a full Principal’s Scholarship in 2020. That year also marked the beginning of her tertiary studies at The Juilliard School as a scholarship holder, studying under the guidance of Richard Aaron. She recently completed her studies at the Melbourne Conservatorium studying under Richard Narroway and has received full scholarships to Northwestern, Meadowmount, the Royal College of Music, and study grants from the Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Academy of Music.